scholarly journals The polarization compass dominates over idiothetic cues in path integration of desert ants

2012 ◽  
Vol 215 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Lebhardt ◽  
J. Koch ◽  
B. Ronacher
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Idiothetic Cues ◽  
Polarization Compass

scholarly journals Path Integration Provides a Scaffold for Landmark Learning in Desert Ants

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 1368-1371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Müller ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Landmark Learning

scholarly journals Optimal multiguidance integration in insect navigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (11) ◽  
pp. 2824-2829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Hoinville ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Terrestrial Environment ◽  
Insect Navigation ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Local Vector ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global Vector ◽  
Global And Local

In the last decades, desert ants have become model organisms for the study of insect navigation. In finding their way, they use two major navigational routines: path integration using a celestial compass and landmark guidance based on sets of panoramic views of the terrestrial environment. It has been claimed that this information would enable the insect to acquire and use a centralized cognitive map of its foraging terrain. Here, we present a decentralized architecture, in which the concurrently operating path integration and landmark guidance routines contribute optimally to the directions to be steered, with “optimal” meaning maximizing the certainty (reliability) of the combined information. At any one time during its journey, the animal computes a path integration (global) vector and landmark guidance (local) vector, in which the length of each vector is proportional to the certainty of the individual estimates. Hence, these vectors represent the limited knowledge that the navigator has at any one place about the direction of the goal. The sum of the global and local vectors indicates the navigator’s optimal directional estimate. Wherever applied, this decentralized model architecture is sufficient to simulate the results of quite a number of diverse cue-conflict experiments, which have recently been performed in various behavioral contexts by different authors in both desert ants and honeybees. They include even those experiments that have deliberately been designed by former authors to strengthen the evidence for a metric cognitive map in bees.

scholarly journals The Use of Landmarks by Clark's Nutcrackers: First Tests of a New Model

2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan C. Kamil ◽  
Aleida J. Goodyear ◽  
Ken Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Nucifraga Columbiana ◽  
Scatter Hoarding ◽  
New Model ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Clark’S Nutcrackers ◽  
Multiple Bearings ◽  
Clark's Nutcrackers

Animals use many different mechanisms to navigate in space. The characteristics of the mechanism employed are usually well-suited to the demands of each particular navigational problem. For example, desert ants navigating in a relatively featureless environment use path integration, birds homing or migrating over long distances use compasses of various sorts, salmon returning to their natal stream home on olfactory cues. The study of navigation requires the study of many different taxa confronting different problems. One interesting case involves scatter-hoarding species that use memory to relocate their hidden food. Such animals face the problem of remembering many locations simultaneously. Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) are an excellent example, and this paper considers their possible use of multiple bearings from landmarks.

scholarly journals Path Integration Controls Nest-Plume Following in Desert Ants

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 645-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Buehlmann ◽  
Bill S. Hansson ◽  
Markus Knaden
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants

scholarly journals Flexible weighing of olfactory and vector information in the desert ant Cataglyphis fortis

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 20130070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Buehlmann ◽  
Bill S. Hansson ◽  
Markus Knaden
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Feeding Site ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Desert Ant ◽  
Vector Information ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Path Integrator ◽  
Odour Plumes ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis , are equipped with remarkable skills that enable them to navigate efficiently. When travelling between the nest and a previously visited feeding site, they perform path integration (PI), but pinpoint the nest or feeder by following odour plumes. Homing ants respond to nest plumes only when the path integrator indicates that they are near home. This is crucial, as homing ants often pass through plumes emanating from foreign nests and do not discriminate between the plume of their own and that of a foreign nest, but should absolutely avoid entering a wrong nest. Their behaviour towards food odours differs greatly. Here, we show that in ants on the way to food, olfactory information outweighs PI information. Although PI guides ants back to a learned feeder, the ants respond to food odours independently of whether or not they are close to the learned feeding site. This ability is beneficial, as new food sources—unlike foreign nests—never pose a threat but enable ants to shorten distances travelled while foraging. While it has been shown that navigating C. fortis ants rely strongly on PI, we report here that the ants retained the necessary flexibility in the use of PI.

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